Get pumped.

The NFL schedule will be released tonight at 8 p.m. There will be a FULL, THREE HOUR special on the NFL Network to celebrate this momentous occasion. ESPN, not to be outdone, will also air a FULL, THREE HOUR special. Then, every sports media member in the Delaware Valley will go game-by-game through the schedule and give you their wins and losses prediction. It’s riveting stuff.

We already know who the Eagles will play this year. We’ve known for some time. Here’s the list, just to jog your memory:

  • home games: Redskins, Giants, Cowboys, Ravens, Bengals, Rams, Saints, Seahawks,
  • away games: Redskins, Giants, Cowboys, Cardinals, Browns, Packers, Steelers, 49ers

Now to the rumor:

John Clayton is reporting that the first few weeks will feature non-conference matchups, as USA Today explains:

The opening weeks of the schedule will feature out-of-conference games, John Clayton confirmed to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar (sic) this has been a league discussion.

Clayton has heard this from multiple league sources over the last few weeks. The idea is to start with the out-of-conference games so if they need to shave the season off at the start, those games are the least important in a competitive sense.

That makes sense. If COVID-19 messes up the season, they can chop off those AFC North games and let the teams play their in-conference opponents instead, including six games against division rivals. If we’re being honest though, I’m really looking forward to those Ravens and Steelers games. Hopefully they can play the full schedule. We need to beat the Yinzers into submission, for Pennsylvania bragging rights.

As you know, club facilities have been shut down since late March, but this week Roger Goodell sent out a memo to teams with guidelines for reopening. The first phase is targeted for implementation on May 15th, with some info via ESPN:

At that point, Goodell said teams can expect to be advised when their facilities can reopen. The memo made no mention of a previous NFL policy that said no facilities could open until all 32 facilities are eligible to do so, raising the possibility of staggered reopenings around the league. NFL owners are expected to have further discussions of reopening facilities, and their approach moving forward, during their May 19 virtual league meeting.

According to the memo, the first group of employees allowed back into facilities would include no more than 50% of non-player staff, and up to a total of 75 per day. The only players permitted to return would be those who were already rehabilitating injuries prior to the facility closures.

Working off of those dates, we’re obviously missing rookie minicamp but could possibly be ready for training camp to open in July. The Hall of Fame game is scheduled for August 6th in Canton, but it would likely make sense to just chop off a pair of preseason games, adjust the calendar accordingly, and then try to pick it up from there.

We’ll find out tonight!